How to integrate Facebook into your customer service strategy

Emily | 23/12/2013

So you heard about the Casengo/Facebook integration, didn’t you? That’s right: from now on comments made on your company’s Facebook Page can be delivered directly to your Casengo inbox. No more clicking backwards and forwards to reply to new posts; you can now find all of your clients’ emails, chat transcripts and Facebook comments in one place. You’ll never need to worry about missing a thing. Oh. I thought you’d be a bit more excited. What’s that? Your business is too small to have an active Facebook Page? You’re only on Facebook because someone told you that you really should be? Your Page is nothing but a place-marker? You hardly ever receive customer comments? So the new functionality isn’t going to make much of a difference to your company? Think again – the new Facebook integration is just as useful to companies with very little customer traffic on Facebook. Those companies don’t check their Pages all that often and end up missing the few comments that are posted. Letting them come straight to your Casengo inbox will allow you to respond without needing to check your account constantly like a rat pressing a lever or, more likely, letting the customer’s message go unanswered for days or weeks.

Customers prefer social media (like Facebook)

If you don’t think customers place that much importance on social media responses, think again: although around 40% of customers say they still prefer to deal with customer service departments by phone, that number is falling rapidly. More and more people prefer to use email and social media to deal with businesses, and they expect a rapid response. The omnipresence of social media means that customer expectations are changing rapidly, and it’s up to companies to keep in step with their customers – not vice versa. As one executive said: “It doesn’t matter what the company thinks is an important customer service channel, it matters what the consumer thinks is important.” And various studies show that consumers DO think social media is more important than call centres Despite this, the vast majority of businesses are still lagging behind on this trend. In order to meet customer expectations, they need to respond – promptly – to social media contact and keep complete records of each customer’s calls and messages. Customers are no longer prepared to wait around for answers to their tweets and Facebook posts. When they call a business, they don’t want to have to repeat their entire history every time. It’s boring, it’s frustrating, and it makes for unhappy customers.

Real-time responses, regardless of the selected channel

If you rarely or never use social media, you might expect that customers prefer to get on the phone to you when they have a problem. It means they will receive a real-time response to their questions, right? But don’t forget that these days, customers expect immediate responses regardless of which channel they use. You might not be on Facebook, but most of your customers are, and when they send you a message they want a reply within a matter of hours, if not sooner. So take this opportunity to take a fresh look at your company’s Facebook Page. Perhaps it’s time to spruce it up a bit. The new Facebook/Casengo integration makes it easy for you to keep on top of your customers’ Facebook activity with you, and give them the rapid responses they expect. And for those customers who still prefer to use the phone, Casengo allows you to add case notes about any offline contact they make. By adding a line or two about the phone calls or (gulp) even snail mail you receive from them, you’ll ensure that all your customer service reps are always up to speed with exactly what’s going on. Saving you time and, even more importantly, saving your customers’ time – which makes for more happy customers!